Big Five firms Deloitte & Touche and Andersen inked an agreement last Friday to combine operations in Canada, forming Canada's largest accounting firm. Currently, Deloitte & Touche is the country's second largest firm behind PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The merger is subject to a due diligence review, approval of the partners of both firms, and regulatory approval. It is expected that the combination will be completed by early June.

The combined firm will operate under the name of Deloitte & Touche and will be headed by D&T Canada's current chief executive and managing partner, Colin Taylor. "This is a very exciting transaction for Deloitte and our people," Mr. Taylor said in a recent press release. "Both firms have outstanding professionals and the transaction will offer even greater development opportunities for all of our people."

Deloitte's Canadian staff includes 515 partners and 3,700 staff, and Andersen will bring 124 partners and nearly 1,100 staff to the firm. Together the totals will exceed PwC's 533 partners and 4,300 staff. Deloitte reported 2001 revenue of US$564.5 million, Andersen reported US$145 million, and PwC reported approximately US$630 million.

Andersen is represented in seven Canadian cities and Deloitte has offices in 44 locations throughout the country. Deloitte was recently recognized as the top provider of e-business and international tax services in Canada for 2001-02 by the International Tax Review.

View a country-by-country table of Andersen's International network and the Big Five firms with whom each is merging.